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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

The so-called "419" scam is a type of fraud dominated by criminals from Nigeria and other countries in Africa. Victims of the scam are promised a large amount of money, such as a lottery prize, inheritance, money sitting in some bank account, etc.

Victims never receive this non-existent fortune but are tricked into sending their money to the criminals, who remain anonymous. They hide their real identity and location by using fake names and fake postal addresses as well as communicating via anonymous free email accounts and mobile phones.

Keep in mind that scammers DO NOT use their real names when defrauding people.
The criminals either abuse names of real people or companies or invent names or addresses.
Any real people or companies mentioned below have NO CONNECTION to the scammers!

Read more about such scams here or in our 419 FAQ. Use the Scam-O-Matic to verify suspect emails.

Click here to report a problem with this page.

 

 

Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: "Dr.Abba Muhammad" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <abbam22@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 2009 15:33:16 -0700
Subject: PLEASE RESPOND ASAP.

NIGERIAN PORTS AUTHORITY
HEADQUARTERS SHIP HOUSE
MARINA-EAST LAGOS, NIGERIA.
From the desk of: Dr Abba Muhammad.
DIRECTOR OF FINANCE. ( NPA)
HELLO,                  
                                           INVESTMENT PROPOSAL
Although this proposal might come to you as a surprise, since is from someone you do not know or have seen before, I gathered from a very reliable source here  in Nigeria. I am the director, fund coordinator of the finance contract department of Nigeria ports authority. The crux of this letter is that the finance/contract department of the NPA deliberately over inflated the contract value of various contract awarded, In the course of the disbursement, my office was able to track down the sum of  US$23.5M (Twenty-Three Million, Five Hundred Thousand U.S Dollars)as the over invoiced sum. This money is now floating in the
NPA domiciliary account with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).I and my colleagues now want to quickly transfer this fund to a safe nominated foreign account for possible investment. We are not allowed as a matter of government policy to operate any foreign account because of our status as civil/public servants hence the need to solicit for your full banking details, to enable us transfer this money into your account. Upon your acceptance this proposal, we have also agreed on a sharing ratio:
1.30% for you as the account owner
2.60% for my colleagues and I
3.10% will be set aside to defray all incidental expenses both locally and internationally during the cause of this transaction.
Furthermore we shall be coming over to your country when the money is finally in your account and we shall be relying on your advice as regards to investment of our share, be informed that this business is genuine and 100%safe considering the high powered government officials involved.
Send the following information:1.Your direct email address
2.Your phone number for effective communication
This is to effect the swift transfer of this fund into your account in less than (7) working days.
I await your most positive response.
Yours faithfully,
Dr Abba Muhammad.
DIRECTOR. (NPA)

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